Starvingboy
New member
Lets say you have a LOT of mistakes. Say, 300 or so .308 rounds. I'm looking for the fastest way to pull 'em. Something progressive would be good, so far I don't have anything, hence the backlog. Suggestions?
Fastest way to pull mistakes?
- Thread starter Starvingboy
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CortJestir
New member
Get 9 of your best buddies and 10 bullet pullers. Should be done in no time! 
Fastest and least painful way will be with a screw-in collet type puller. Hornady makes one... you screw it in to your press just like a loading die. You run the ram up so that the pullet fits in to a caliber specific collet, then you flip a lever on the die. It grabs the bullet and you lower the press ram to pull it. It may mar bullets. But if you have 300 of them, it's the quickest way and uses the least physical energy.
The other method is a hammer or kinetic puller. This will work quite well, but it'll wear you out. Just inserting each round is enough work if you have to do it 300 times to say NOTHING about all the pounding you'll have to do.
If you go with the hammer route, I'd recommend you pull 10 of them each time you sit at your loading bench and spread the problem out over time.
Either way, 300 rounds that you have to pull ought to be a fine lesson for using a lot more thought and caution at the bench.
It might be therapeutic if you told us what the screw up was so we can laugh WITH you... or maybe at you!
The other method is a hammer or kinetic puller. This will work quite well, but it'll wear you out. Just inserting each round is enough work if you have to do it 300 times to say NOTHING about all the pounding you'll have to do.
If you go with the hammer route, I'd recommend you pull 10 of them each time you sit at your loading bench and spread the problem out over time.
Either way, 300 rounds that you have to pull ought to be a fine lesson for using a lot more thought and caution at the bench.
It might be therapeutic if you told us what the screw up was so we can laugh WITH you... or maybe at you!
Omaha-BeenGlockin
New member
Just bought the Hornady puller---works like a champ once I figured it out.
the Kinetic bullet puller is a must have tool because some bullet profiles will not lend themselves towards being pulled. But, for rifle rounds the collet type is the go to tool! The Hornady Cam Lock bullet puller is a great tool, and is not messy like using a Kinetic Bullet Puller!
totalloser
New member
+3 get the cam lock type puller. I have the RCBS collet puller, and can see that the cam lock (Hornady) is a significantly superior tool. Probably more than twice as fast? Wish I had gotten it. I really don't care for the kinetic pullers, but they pull plated and cast bullets, which a collet cannot. Plus they pull bullets that have fallen into the case.
I have seen another tool that might be just as quick. It looks like a pair of wire strippers, but with bigger holes (one for each caliber), and you feed the bullet up through the hole in the press, and grab the bullet with the pliers thing, and retract the ram. The bullet is left in the pliers to drop in a bucket. REALLY slick. Somebody posted it up, but not sure if it was here. I believe they got it off E-bay.
I have seen another tool that might be just as quick. It looks like a pair of wire strippers, but with bigger holes (one for each caliber), and you feed the bullet up through the hole in the press, and grab the bullet with the pliers thing, and retract the ram. The bullet is left in the pliers to drop in a bucket. REALLY slick. Somebody posted it up, but not sure if it was here. I believe they got it off E-bay.
Significantly superior tool? Now wait a second!
There's a place for both tools for darn sure. The cam lock puller is a great little device... if you made, say, 300 mistakes with rifle rounds, it would come in pretty handy. But there are places where the kinetic puller is much better than the cam-lock, and lead/plated handgun bullets is just one of those examples.
With the kinetic puller, you spend like $15 and you have a kinetic puller. If you don't tap it on concrete but find a wood block instead, the damn thing will last for a helluva long time. I got 15 years out of my last one.
With the cam lock, you need to be at your press or it's worthless. And if you have a die in your press (if you are at the bench there's a good chance you will) then you have to screw out that die. Then you have to screw in the cam-lock puller. Then you have to make sure you have the right caliber collet. If you don't, add it to your shopping cart. All of that to pull one screwed up round.
If you need to pull 20 rounds (or 300!) then it's ideal. If you need to pull 2 or 3, for damn sure, I'm sticking with the kinetic puller.
There's a place for both tools for darn sure. The cam lock puller is a great little device... if you made, say, 300 mistakes with rifle rounds, it would come in pretty handy. But there are places where the kinetic puller is much better than the cam-lock, and lead/plated handgun bullets is just one of those examples.
With the kinetic puller, you spend like $15 and you have a kinetic puller. If you don't tap it on concrete but find a wood block instead, the damn thing will last for a helluva long time. I got 15 years out of my last one.
With the cam lock, you need to be at your press or it's worthless. And if you have a die in your press (if you are at the bench there's a good chance you will) then you have to screw out that die. Then you have to screw in the cam-lock puller. Then you have to make sure you have the right caliber collet. If you don't, add it to your shopping cart. All of that to pull one screwed up round.
If you need to pull 20 rounds (or 300!) then it's ideal. If you need to pull 2 or 3, for damn sure, I'm sticking with the kinetic puller.
FrankenMauser
New member
My sentiments toward the tools differ slightly. However, I pretty much agree with Sevens.
The cam-lock puller from Hornady is a very nice tool to have.... if you are pulling multiple rounds with jacketed bullets.
If it isn't worth 2-3 minutes of setup time, I still reach for the inertia puller for a quick fix. And, as mentioned.... lead and plated bullets just get obliterated by a collet puller. Whacking away with the 'hammer' is the only way to go, if you want to save lead/plated bullets.
To answer the OP's original question:
If you feel the monetary investment is worth it; buy the Hornady cam-lock puller (much faster to work with than the RCBS version) and collets for calibers you most often make mistakes in.
If you don't think it's worth it; find a block of wood and start whackin'.
The cam-lock puller from Hornady is a very nice tool to have.... if you are pulling multiple rounds with jacketed bullets.
If it isn't worth 2-3 minutes of setup time, I still reach for the inertia puller for a quick fix. And, as mentioned.... lead and plated bullets just get obliterated by a collet puller. Whacking away with the 'hammer' is the only way to go, if you want to save lead/plated bullets.
To answer the OP's original question:
If you feel the monetary investment is worth it; buy the Hornady cam-lock puller (much faster to work with than the RCBS version) and collets for calibers you most often make mistakes in.
If you don't think it's worth it; find a block of wood and start whackin'.
In a perfect world, we'd never make mistakes at the bench that require a puller. Of course, that's not a world we live in! But I make few enough mistakes where I can get by with a kinetic puller and I don't need a cam-lock type.
But there's another reason to want to get one: If you should come in to a tremendous supply of some milsurp crap ammo that you don't want to shoot but you do want to reclaim the bullets, the cam-lock puller would be the perfect tool for the job.
But there's another reason to want to get one: If you should come in to a tremendous supply of some milsurp crap ammo that you don't want to shoot but you do want to reclaim the bullets, the cam-lock puller would be the perfect tool for the job.
totalloser
New member
Wait a second? Geez, what I meant is that the cam lock is superior to my RCBS collet puller which you have to swing a rod to lock. The rod interferes with other dies on my turret, and takes a lot longer to operate than I am sure a cam lock would.
The comparison was not meant to be for a kinetic puller... BUT since the contention is made, I WILL say a collet puller is superior to a kinetic. It takes about the same to twice as long to set up assuming the correct collet is in place, and is MUCH MUCH MUCH faster once it's set up. So if you are doing more than three shells, the collet puller will save you time. It's faster for ONE shell if you have it in a turret. Plus it doesn't dump your powder into the end to mix with whatever else is in there.
Kinetics have their place, no doubt. Every bench should probably have one, as I noted. But after starting with nothing but kinetics and breaking a couple hitting a nice soft doug fir 2x4, and then using a collet, I would never go back. ANYTHING I can pull with a collet gets the collet puller. It's just easier and cleaner. Kinetics are a big pain for crimped rifle bullets-especially .223.
I save the kinetic for my Raniers which the collet CANNOT pull.
The comparison was not meant to be for a kinetic puller... BUT since the contention is made, I WILL say a collet puller is superior to a kinetic. It takes about the same to twice as long to set up assuming the correct collet is in place, and is MUCH MUCH MUCH faster once it's set up. So if you are doing more than three shells, the collet puller will save you time. It's faster for ONE shell if you have it in a turret. Plus it doesn't dump your powder into the end to mix with whatever else is in there.
Kinetics have their place, no doubt. Every bench should probably have one, as I noted. But after starting with nothing but kinetics and breaking a couple hitting a nice soft doug fir 2x4, and then using a collet, I would never go back. ANYTHING I can pull with a collet gets the collet puller. It's just easier and cleaner. Kinetics are a big pain for crimped rifle bullets-especially .223.
I save the kinetic for my Raniers which the collet CANNOT pull.
Starvingboy
New member
Thanks guys. I was wondering about the cam lock setup, but wanted to see if anyone brought up the topic. Sounds like I'll have to shell out the $$ and get one. Especially as my pile of brass is slowly migrating over to the "Needs pulled" pile.